Urban Fashion Brands of the 90s

As with any decade, the 90s was complete with their own brand of distinct, and sometimes cringe-worthy fashion. The early part of the decade saw the rise of the “grunge” look—complete with torn jeans, faded t-shirts, combat-style boots and oversized flannel t-shirts. This look was made popular by bands such as the hugely successful rock group Nirvana. Not to be outdone, the urban music landscape (i.e. R&B and Hip-Hop) also had a sense of fashion all its own. Baggy jeans, backwards facing baseball caps, huge sports jerseys, starter jackets and any one of a number of pairs of shoes endorsed by arguably the top athlete of the decade—Michael Jordan. The early 90s were accented by such clothing brands as Paco, Damage, Karl Kani and the largely popular Cross Colours brands. The mid 90s saw the rise of brands like Pelle Pelle, Mecca, Enyce, and Coogi. The late 90s were ripe with people adorned with the likes of Sean John, Phat Farm and the ever present brand, FUBU. Furthermore, even though they are not considered urban brands, companies such as Polo, Nautica and Tommy Hilfiger saw their profits shoot through the roof with their omnipresence in rap videos. This was in spite of a vicious rumor that was started stating that Tommy Hilfiger said that he doesn’t make his clothing for black people—which would later prove to be a complete lie. There was no shortage of celebrity endorsements used by these various brands. Phat Farm was a creation of Def Jam mogul Russell Simmons. So he definitely had an (argyle) “vested” interest in the success of his company and oftentimes would appear in the print ads himself, modeling the clothing he was ultimately trying to sale. Also, who could forget the ubiquitous ads for FUBU brand clothing in which LL Cool J constantly wore FUBU from head to to—including his signature one pant-leg rolled all the way up to the knee? FUBU is arguably the most famous of these urban brands, and also the most controversial. The term FUBU is actually an acronym which stands for “For Us By Us”. There were some people who took exception to the fact that the clothing brand was made presumably for African-Americans, however, the brand survived the scandal and would continue to thrive into the early 2000s. The trends were definitely one of a kind. It is solely because of the 90s and the rise of urban culture that we could look back upon this decade fondly and reminisce how things were during this time.

Cross Colours

FUBU